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Plastic Planet is a series on the global plastics crisis that evaluates the environmental and human costs and considers possible solutions to this devastating man-made problem. In this op-ed, Kenny Torrella of Mercy for Animals explains how the seafood industry is harming the environment.

Some fish parasites are on the rise, bringing with them risks to human health and fisheries-based economies. Now researchers have a new way to track their numbers—by digging into old records and museum samples. Recent years have seen alarming outbreaks of disease in fish and other marine species, including one that caused a massive die-off of sea stars in the northeast Pacific starting in 2013. But it has not been clear whether this uptick in illnesses was due to an actual increase in the number of pathogens...

Scientists have found the first evidence of plastic contamination in freshwater fish in the Amazon, highlighting the extent to which bags, bottles and other waste dumped in rivers is affecting the world’s wildlife. Tests on the stomach contents of fish in Brazil’s Xingu River, one of the major tributaries of the Amazon, revealed plastic particles in more than 80% of the species examined, including the omnivorous parrot pacu, herbivorous redhook silver dollar, and meat-eating red-bellied piranha.

Half of Canada’s chinook salmon are endangered, with nearly all other populations in precarious decline, according to a new report, confirming fears that prospects for the species remain dire. The report by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada concluded that eight of the country’s 16 populations are considered endangered, four are threatened, one is of special concern and the health of two remain unknown.

The odds are that every second farmed salmon we eat has lost much of its ability to hear.
Although fish senses aren’t usually a consideration when they’re on a plate, researchers now know that deafness in farmed salmon is due to a deformity in the ear, caused by accelerated growth in aquaculture.

Trying to have a baby? Eating fish might help. Researchers interviewed 501 couples who were trying to get pregnant without medical assistance. All kept diaries on their diet and other health and behavioral habits, including fish consumption and frequency of sexual intercourse. They followed the pairs for a year or until pregnancy.

The next luxury seafood item might be salmon. Prices for the once-cheap fish are at their highest in two decades, with no sign of relief. That’s not just thanks to overfishing. Because the world long ago tapped out the wild salmon population, around two-thirds of the salmon we currently eat is farmed. Salmon farmers are now bumping up against production constraints while demand grows at 5-10% annually, according to the Financial Times (paywall).

The University of Tübingen's Institute of Anatomy has discovered a fish with a previously unknown type of eye. The aptly-named glasshead barreleye lives at depths of 800 to 1000 meters. It has a cylindrical eye pointing upwards to see prey, predators or potential mates silhouetted against the gloomy ...

Seafood often travels huge distances over many days to reach the people who eat it. And it's often impossible to know where a fillet of fish or a few frozen shrimp came from — and, perhaps more importantly, just how they were caught. Fortunately, activists are doing the homework for us, and what they're telling us could make your next fish dinner a little less tasty.

Many theories have surfaced in the months since a three-eyed walleye fish affectionately dubbed "Third Eye Louie" was pulled out of Lake Nipissing. Some claimed the freak fish spawned from a nuclear spill or was the product of an old uranium mine. Others pointed to the cyanobacterial blooms in the lake and the sewage pollution from wastewater plants dotting its shores as the cause of the periscopic third eye.

Make no mistake: when it comes to migratory fish, sometimes science requires the art of imagination. Conservation planner Josh Royte celebrates World Fish Migration Day and the hope offered by river restoration.

Fish do not feel pain the way humans do, according to a team of neurobiologists, behavioral ecologists and fishery scientists. The researchers conclude that fish do not have the neuro-physiological capacity for a conscious awareness of pain.

Earlier this week in La Jolla, California, what appeared to be a massive oil spill in the water began creeping towards the beach. However, closer inspection revealed that the inky cloud was not a batch of Exxon-Mobil's finest at all, but an enormous school of fish. Specifically, anchovies.

In 1842, the infamous showman P.T. Barnum unveiled a truly bizarre creature. In his autobiography, Barnum described it as “an ugly, dried-up, black-looking, and diminutive specimen… its arms thrown up, giving it the appearance of having died in great agony.” The Feejee mermaid, as the mummified remains were called, possessed the torso of a monkey with the tail of a fish.

The world's oldest European eel died on Friday, according to the BBC, causing an uproar among Swedes who loved that old eel. The eel was born in 1859 and lived in a well. The eel, who was known as Ale (confusing), lived in the southern town of Brantevik and was owned by Tomas Kjellman, who moved into the cottage next to the well with his family in 1962. Kjellman told Swedish paper The Local that "we always knew the housepet was included."

Most people think of fish as somehow lesser than pigs, cows, chickens and other land animals. We have a vague notion that fish aren't as intelligent (think of the common belief that fish only have a three-second memory) and genuinely wonder whether they can feel pain. Lots of people consider themselves vegetarians, but eat fish while abstaining from all other meats.

Salmon live interesting lives: they are born in fresh water, then migrate to the ocean, where they grow to maturity, returning back to fresh water to breed, sometimes hundreds of kilometres, navigating obstacles along the way -- including swimming up waterfalls. And not just any freshwater will do, either: salmon return to the very spot they were born to lay their own spawn.

A 10ft (3m) long fish which used to dominate the Amazon river has been fished to extinction in a number of areas, scientists have revealed. Arapaima populations were found to be extinct in eight of the 41 communities studied, and extremely low on average. Fishermen were trained to count the fish as part of a large-scale survey.